I presented a webinar for the American Library Association (YALSA) yesterday for librarians around the country. The topic was near and dear to my heart: the best non-fiction for teens (published recently) and perfect fiction titles to pair with each one.
SO MANY GOOD TITLES, not nearly enough time to present them all. I had a 60 minute maximum and started with 68 non-fiction titles that I "had" to discuss. Add in the matching fiction title and that is entirely too many books to cover in an hour. But cutting titles from the list reminded me of the Neil Gaiman quote about how picking favorite books equals picking body parts that I could live without. Nearly impossible, but I managed to do it.
Final presentation ended up having 49 slides...whew! It was a fast-moving presentation. For those of you that weren't able to attend the presentation, you can find out more about it here and there are options to purchase access to the webinar. If you are a YALSA member, you should have free access to it in two months.
I will take some time over the next few weeks to share some of my favorite selections/pairing. There are so many good non-fiction titles published for teens (and tweens) in the last year or so...it's my favorite genre and I love talking about them! Stay tuned!
Showing posts with label YALSA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label YALSA. Show all posts
Friday, November 22, 2013
Friday, February 1, 2013
Award Winners
It seems appropriate that our 6th graders will be reading Award Winners (and Honor books) this quarter, being that most of the major reading awards were just announced this week.
It was the American Library Association's Midwinter meeting, and this past weekend it was in my own backyard (Seattle). Unfortunately, because of my chemo treatments, I was unable to attend. AAAAH! It was so hard not to be there, as I've been at almost every meeting for YEARS, having served on many of ALA's award committees in the past.
One of the best parts of Midwinter is getting up early Monday morning and being in the audience as each award is announced live. Okay, well, getting up early isn't always that great, but it is so fun to be in a room of fellow book nerds cheering as books are announced, especially when one of your favorite titles wins. To find links to all the recently announced award winners, click here. There is also video clips from the ceremony. To find teen specific awards, click on YALSA's award page. I have served on many of these award committees including Best Fiction, Popular Paperbacks, and am now serving on the Excellence in Non-Fiction award committee.
For this quarter's 6th graders, you can find my book list of suggestions here.
If you are also a fan of the library's Facebook page, you will see I posted my favorite recommendations from all the titles listed. I will be recommending them here over the next week.
Let me know which book you choose...and I can't wait to hear how you liked it. Not a 6th grader? Tell me what your favorite award/honor title would be. Or which award you look forward to hearing each year.
It was the American Library Association's Midwinter meeting, and this past weekend it was in my own backyard (Seattle). Unfortunately, because of my chemo treatments, I was unable to attend. AAAAH! It was so hard not to be there, as I've been at almost every meeting for YEARS, having served on many of ALA's award committees in the past.
One of the best parts of Midwinter is getting up early Monday morning and being in the audience as each award is announced live. Okay, well, getting up early isn't always that great, but it is so fun to be in a room of fellow book nerds cheering as books are announced, especially when one of your favorite titles wins. To find links to all the recently announced award winners, click here. There is also video clips from the ceremony. To find teen specific awards, click on YALSA's award page. I have served on many of these award committees including Best Fiction, Popular Paperbacks, and am now serving on the Excellence in Non-Fiction award committee.
For this quarter's 6th graders, you can find my book list of suggestions here.
If you are also a fan of the library's Facebook page, you will see I posted my favorite recommendations from all the titles listed. I will be recommending them here over the next week.
Let me know which book you choose...and I can't wait to hear how you liked it. Not a 6th grader? Tell me what your favorite award/honor title would be. Or which award you look forward to hearing each year.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Non-Fiction
The next reading project that I'm highlighting is our 7th grade unit: Non-Fiction. Always a favorite of mine, and I'm very excited to be on this year's Excellence in Non-Fiction Award committee (a national award under YALSA/ALA).
For this quarter, you can find my book list of suggestions, as well as a copy of my presentation, here. (To see past non-fiction titles that I've reviewed on the blog, click here. You can see that I haven't reviewed as much non-fiction in the past two years because of my service on the YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults award committee. So many fiction books that I've read!!)
If you are also a fan of the library's Facebook page, you will see I posted my favorite recommendations from all the titles listed. I will be recommending them here over the next week.
Let me know which book you choose...and I can't wait to hear how you liked it. Not a 7th grader? Tell me what your favorite non-fiction title would be.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Tuesday Top 10
This week's post pays tribute to YALSA's Teens’ Top Ten, a “teen choice” list, where teens nominate and choose their favorite books of the previous year. Nominators are members of teen book groups in fifteen school and public libraries around the country. This year's nominations were recently posted (see the above link for titles/annotations) and teens have the opportunity to read any or all of these books over the summer before voting for their favorite at the end of August.
There are some great books nominated for this year's Teens' Top Ten...I'm not sure that I could narrow down my favorites, and there are still a few that I have not read. I decided to look at Evergreen Junior High's "Top 10" to see just how our students compared with teens across the country. (Our library catalog tracks the Top 10 books at any given time based on some strange formula I have never quite figured out, but appears to factor in number of copies and number of checkouts, but not number of holds/requests).
Three books from 2009's Teens' Top Ten list have spent much time in our own Top 10 recently, including our current #1 book "The Hunger Games." Not a surprise that students here or around the country would vote for this book. "The Hunger Games" was recently named Washington State's Evergreen Young Adult Book Award winner this year, and it dominated our school's voting as well, garnering over 62% of EJH's votes! It still resides in the number one place on our Top 10 likely due to the continued hype about the upcoming movie. (With all that being said, I still cannot convince my 8th grade son to read it...makes me crazy not having anyone in the family to talk about the series with! Who is going to see the movie with me???)
Two other books from the 2009 list have been in and out of our Top 10 during the past few months: "The Graveyard Book" (Gaiman) and "Graceling" (Cashore). Both of these are due to the fact that they were also nominated for this year's Evergreen Young Adult Book Award. Though neither book garnered enough votes to beat out "The Hunger Games" (and really, what could?), both have seen an increase in readership since the voting took place. I attribute this to students encouraging friends, families, and teachers to read them...how exciting when students promote the books they love!
Several books from the 2010 Top Ten list have also spent time on our Top 10 recently. "Catching Fire" (Collins), for obvious reasons. "Wintergirls" (Anderson) is always a popular choice with our 8th graders when they do the "Survival" unit (recently completed). And I'd like to attribute the popularity of "Heist Society" (Carter) to the fact that I love it so much and booktalk it often. Does this mean that the students actually listen to what I say? I will keep thinking that I do influence their reading habits, while also noting I'm sure it has a lot to do with the book itself and the amazing Ally Carter. We are looking forward to the sequel this summer!
On a side note, one of the authors from the 2010 list, Sarah Dessen (for "Along for the Ride"), is wildly popular with my 8th grade girls (and since it's spring, my 7th graders are starting to discover her). Though her individual titles typically don't crack our Top 10, if the system could track Top 10 authors, she would be in the Top 5 without question. All of our copies of all of her books are ALWAYS checked out.
So what is popular right now with your teens?
There are some great books nominated for this year's Teens' Top Ten...I'm not sure that I could narrow down my favorites, and there are still a few that I have not read. I decided to look at Evergreen Junior High's "Top 10" to see just how our students compared with teens across the country. (Our library catalog tracks the Top 10 books at any given time based on some strange formula I have never quite figured out, but appears to factor in number of copies and number of checkouts, but not number of holds/requests).
Three books from 2009's Teens' Top Ten list have spent much time in our own Top 10 recently, including our current #1 book "The Hunger Games." Not a surprise that students here or around the country would vote for this book. "The Hunger Games" was recently named Washington State's Evergreen Young Adult Book Award winner this year, and it dominated our school's voting as well, garnering over 62% of EJH's votes! It still resides in the number one place on our Top 10 likely due to the continued hype about the upcoming movie. (With all that being said, I still cannot convince my 8th grade son to read it...makes me crazy not having anyone in the family to talk about the series with! Who is going to see the movie with me???)
Two other books from the 2009 list have been in and out of our Top 10 during the past few months: "The Graveyard Book" (Gaiman) and "Graceling" (Cashore). Both of these are due to the fact that they were also nominated for this year's Evergreen Young Adult Book Award. Though neither book garnered enough votes to beat out "The Hunger Games" (and really, what could?), both have seen an increase in readership since the voting took place. I attribute this to students encouraging friends, families, and teachers to read them...how exciting when students promote the books they love!
Several books from the 2010 Top Ten list have also spent time on our Top 10 recently. "Catching Fire" (Collins), for obvious reasons. "Wintergirls" (Anderson) is always a popular choice with our 8th graders when they do the "Survival" unit (recently completed). And I'd like to attribute the popularity of "Heist Society" (Carter) to the fact that I love it so much and booktalk it often. Does this mean that the students actually listen to what I say? I will keep thinking that I do influence their reading habits, while also noting I'm sure it has a lot to do with the book itself and the amazing Ally Carter. We are looking forward to the sequel this summer!
On a side note, one of the authors from the 2010 list, Sarah Dessen (for "Along for the Ride"), is wildly popular with my 8th grade girls (and since it's spring, my 7th graders are starting to discover her). Though her individual titles typically don't crack our Top 10, if the system could track Top 10 authors, she would be in the Top 5 without question. All of our copies of all of her books are ALWAYS checked out.
So what is popular right now with your teens?
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